Ark
by Hawki
Summary: Segaverse Oneshot: The ARK was shut down 50 years ago. It haunted GUN 50 years after the event. And for some, it haunted them then and there.


**Ark**

From space, the Earth was beautiful. One couldn't see how much blood had been spilt over it.

Such were Lieutenant Pickford's thoughts as he stood in the observation room of Space Colony ARK. A space station that didn't even really meet the definition of a colony, and sure as hell didn't meet the definition of an ark. Because bar only a few exceptions reserved for lab subjects, there was only one type of animal on this ship, and it wasn't one that needed preserving. Especially considering that events of the last 48 hours had shown that the species if the species in question needed protection from anything, it was itself. Which, considering that there were over 6 billion members of that species on the planet below, might present a problem. For GUN, for the United Federation, and every other country on the miserable little rock orbiting a main sequence star in this corner of the galaxy.

A door hissed open. Pickford didn't give it a glance, nor a second thought. He knew who it was. Even if he didn't, he could see her reflection in the window he was looking out of. The window she was approaching. The window that Captain Miley came up to, standing beside him as the two GUN troopers looked down on the planet below. A planet mostly covered in water, and one that the ARK was situated above, as if riding the flood that covered the surface.

"Nice view," Miley murmured.

Pickford didn't say anything. He'd let her have her small talk, as long as he made clear that he wasn't interested in it.

"Shuttle should be ready to depart in fifteen hours by the way," Miley continued.

Pickford still didn't say anything.

"We actually had to get the _Liberty _up here to transport all the scientists and their specimens. The _Freedom _by itself isn't going to cover it."

Pickford grunted. "Dead bodies tend to take up more room than living ones."

"As you knew before this mission."

Pickford didn't contest the point. He did. He was a member of GUN. Dead bodies came with the job. Sometimes, those bodies weren't intended to be dead. "Collateral damage," as the saying went. But maybe it came from it being one of his own, so to speak, but…

Miley sighed. "I know you're not going to let this go, Pickford. So say it. Speak freely, off the record, all that. Because the cover story is that there was an accident here, and GUN had to come in to evacuate the staff. The ARK's going to be sealed, and no-one's going to speak of its legacy again."

Pickford looked at her. "Is that what we're calling it? An accident?"

"Pickford…"

"Private Davids shot her." He turned and faced the captain. "She was running with a test subject, and Davids shot her. God's sake, that girl was only ten years old, and now she's dead."

"According to her file, she was as good as dead either way."

"Don't…" Pickford took a breath. "Don't play that game, Captain. She was dead. A grandfather's lost her granddaughter, and now I don't even have the authority of admitting that one of my men fucked it up."

"One of your men," Miley murmured. "Chain of command is long, Pickford. You seem hell-bent on strangling yourself with it. Or is it that you can afford to play the game of righteous indignation when you know there's no penalty for it?"

Pickford glared at her, and Miley's gaze softened slightly. "Fine," she said. "You're here to say your piece. Say it."

The lieutenant said nothing. He wasn't even sure what he could say, or at this point, what the point was. GUN soldiers had boarded the ARK. It hadn't gone to plan. Gerald Robotnik was now on his way to Prison Island, and the creature that the girl had sent into the ocean was being retrieved right at this very moment. Instead, Pickford turned around and walked to the centre of the room. Where an escape capsule had been raised and then dispatched by a girl who'd lied on the ground next to it, bleeding from a gunshot wound. A girl he'd seen die right before his eyes.

"I saw it happen here," he murmured. "Right before me."

Miley walked over.

"No-one's going to know what happened here," he continued. "Only us."

"Duly noted."

He looked at her. "Doesn't that bother you? GUN funds Doctor Robotnik, then sends armed soldiers to, and I quote, 'deal with him?'"

Miley frowned. "You read the mission briefs," she said. "The Artificial Chaos. The Gizoid. Not to mention all the stories about lizards, and aliens, and super-weapons."

"And we just shut it down," Pickford said.

"We do," Miley said. "And that's the end of the story." She patted him on the shoulder. "Fifteen hours. Be there."

Pickford grunted. "And if I'm not?"

"Then you get to stay on a dead ARK with security robots and a few Artificial Chaos creatures."

Pickford said nothing, though reflected that in regards to current company, that might now have been so bad.


End file.
